Fri, 14 Oct 1994 05:56:26 -0700 for <SOCGRAD@UCSD.EDU>
Date:         Fri, 14 Oct 94 08:49:01 EDT
From: Steve Harvey <HARVEY@uconnvm.uconn.edu>
Subject:      RCT, game theory, and norms
To: SOCGRAD@UCSD.EDU
Bob-

  Good call! You predicted correctly that I would contest your comment that
RCTs have not addressed norms "much". There's a huge and growing body of RCT
literature on normative social control, including Heckathorn, Coleman,
Hechter, Olsen, Ostrom, Oliver, and on and on. I know where that perception
comes from, but it's really just "conventional wisdom" rather than an
accurate portrayal of what's going on in the field.

Steve (I think)- Game theory and game theoretic modeling (including
transaction cost economics, which bears certain similarities) has been most
effective at analyzing collective action problems, and the choice of boundaries
between hierarchies and markets.

                                 -steve